Rocky Road
Retired Screen Name
Just a few thoughts about naming personal weapons--
I have mixed emotions about this practice. Perhaps it developed in ancient times when metallurgy was an arcane art and items of iron and later steel were thought possessed of mystical properties. Oaths were sworn on the sword and so forth. The one-of-a-kind edged weapon of a knight/noble required much personal dedication, and the cost was sometimes the equivalent of years' income. This was very different from the issue gladius or machaira, turned out in their thousands by Roman and Greek armorers.
I have a problem with naming a particular weapon and thus attributing a "personality" to a it. This tends to validate some stupid contentions of the anti-arms idiots, to the effect that "Guns are EEEVULLLL!" Naming a gun or knife identical to thousands of identical items, you take it out of the realm of useful tool and assign it its own character, for good or bad. We need to use care in letting certain people know.
ALL OF WHICH BEING SAID - - - - I have done the same thing over the years.
An early commercial Colt 1911 I obtained in the early sixties has been "Ole Sam" (for Sam Colt) off and on since that time.
My Walther PPK .380, bought new in 1966, was a constant companion for years, and I called it, "The Little Hun."
"Mark Ivy" is a Colt GOvt .45 I rigged out for the the 1981 IPSC Nationals. It has the old, large format slide makings, "Mk. IV Series 70," Hence "his" name.
My 1969-vintage lightweight Commander was stolen from my car in Fort Worth in the mid-80s. FWPD pawnshop detail found it me some months later and I had to go to a property hearing to recover it from the pawnbroker. I had given serial number on the theft report, and I also took along a witness familiar with the pistol. After I was awarded custody, my witness (old friend Stephen Camp, TFL participant) jokingly dubbed the Commander, "Lassie," from the collie in the book, Lassie Come Home. Thus the name of my beat-up old alloy frame Colt.
Calling my model 1928 submachine gun, "Tommy," or "Mr. Thompson" is more a play on the inventor's name than assigning it personality traits.
I tend to think of my favorite firearms the way an old carpenter might consider his most- used hammer or saw--a reliable tool having given long service, to be depended upon when there's work to be done; a warm old friend which . . . Wait. I'd better shut up now.
Best regards,
RR
------------------
---The Second Amendment ensures the rest of the Bill of Rights---
I have mixed emotions about this practice. Perhaps it developed in ancient times when metallurgy was an arcane art and items of iron and later steel were thought possessed of mystical properties. Oaths were sworn on the sword and so forth. The one-of-a-kind edged weapon of a knight/noble required much personal dedication, and the cost was sometimes the equivalent of years' income. This was very different from the issue gladius or machaira, turned out in their thousands by Roman and Greek armorers.
I have a problem with naming a particular weapon and thus attributing a "personality" to a it. This tends to validate some stupid contentions of the anti-arms idiots, to the effect that "Guns are EEEVULLLL!" Naming a gun or knife identical to thousands of identical items, you take it out of the realm of useful tool and assign it its own character, for good or bad. We need to use care in letting certain people know.
ALL OF WHICH BEING SAID - - - - I have done the same thing over the years.
An early commercial Colt 1911 I obtained in the early sixties has been "Ole Sam" (for Sam Colt) off and on since that time.
My Walther PPK .380, bought new in 1966, was a constant companion for years, and I called it, "The Little Hun."
"Mark Ivy" is a Colt GOvt .45 I rigged out for the the 1981 IPSC Nationals. It has the old, large format slide makings, "Mk. IV Series 70," Hence "his" name.
My 1969-vintage lightweight Commander was stolen from my car in Fort Worth in the mid-80s. FWPD pawnshop detail found it me some months later and I had to go to a property hearing to recover it from the pawnbroker. I had given serial number on the theft report, and I also took along a witness familiar with the pistol. After I was awarded custody, my witness (old friend Stephen Camp, TFL participant) jokingly dubbed the Commander, "Lassie," from the collie in the book, Lassie Come Home. Thus the name of my beat-up old alloy frame Colt.
Calling my model 1928 submachine gun, "Tommy," or "Mr. Thompson" is more a play on the inventor's name than assigning it personality traits.
I tend to think of my favorite firearms the way an old carpenter might consider his most- used hammer or saw--a reliable tool having given long service, to be depended upon when there's work to be done; a warm old friend which . . . Wait. I'd better shut up now.
Best regards,
RR
------------------
---The Second Amendment ensures the rest of the Bill of Rights---
, I'm going to dub it "Storm Bringer" and baptise it during a Florida thunderstorm. 
